BajaNomad - Satellite Internet

Satellite Internet

BigWooo - 8-15-2007 at 07:34 PM

Ok...I know I'm going to start a Starband vs. Hughesnet debate, but I’m so impressed with the service I’ve received from Bajabus (a fellow nomad) I felt I had to give him a little plug.

We purchased our Starband system through Bajabus and took an online course to learn how to install it ourselves. Setting it up was a bit frustrating at first but through Bajabus’s (Max) excellent guidance we were able to get the system up and running in fairly short order. He’s really good at figuring out what you’re doing wrong…and he had a lot to figure when I called for help.

For customer service I don’t think his company can be beat.

Max can be reached at www.orbitalenterprises.net

Woo

bajadock - 8-15-2007 at 08:39 PM

Good to know. Max responded to my inquiry within a few hours via email. I'm about 6 weeks away from installation. My early light research indicates that if your expectation or recent service is cable or DSL, you will be disappointed in satellite. But, if you're S.O.L. without an alternative, looks like a plan.

Hope to hear from others' recent satellite internet performance pros/cons.

"without an alternative"...mucho correcto

CasaManzana - 8-16-2007 at 05:36 AM

I've had Hughes Net now for 6 years, was DirecWay until last year, and feel lucky to have this option. Yes you have outages from sun spots and other unknown reasons, but overall it's been good. Tech support is good as well. I'm paying $60/month....assume yours is about that too. They offer modems that now are very energy efficient, a big deal to us solar powered guys

Bob and Susan - 8-16-2007 at 05:39 AM

we too have hughes net and are satisfied...

in a place w/o services it is NICE to connect with the world

tech support person here in mulege is OUTSTANDING!!! :lol:

losfrailes - 8-16-2007 at 06:06 AM

I have been using DirecWay (aka Hughes) for about 4 years now. Other than the infrequent outages caused by solar disturbances, have never had a problem.

Am presently on the Pro plan, cost about 70 a month, download speeds I get up to 1000 /uploads close to 200 . Not just promises by actual speeds.

This speed is what you pay for! Here is the actual test results of just a few minutes ago:

August 16th, 12:09PM - 815/193 kbps

[Edited on 8-16-2007 by losfrailes]

Pescador - 8-16-2007 at 06:10 AM

Well, I guess in the final analysis I really could care less which company I was dealing with since they both have a market share I would assume that they both have strengths and weaknesses. But, in my humble opinion, most of that is "techie talk' about upload speeds and download speeds and whatever other speeds we should be knowledgable of. I talked to the two major players or installers and made my decision totally on a personal basis. Wayne Davy, the Direcway installer from Ejido San Lucas, gave me the confidence that between the two of us we could install and keep this fandagled thing operating. Does that mean that I might have loaded the crossword puzzle in .0058 seconds faster if I had gone with the other company? So he helped me, trained me, and continues to hold my hand through the whole experience and to quote the Mastercard add the cost of that is "Priceless".

BigWooo - 8-17-2007 at 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pescador
Wayne Davy, the Direcway installer from Ejido San Lucas, gave me the confidence that between the two of us we could install and keep this fandagled thing operating.

I guess I should clarify my statement a bit:

If you're going to use Starband I wouldn't go with anyone but Max (Bajabus), but if you do decide on Hughesnet, I have some neighbors that had Wayne install and service their systems and everyone is very satisfied.

BCSTech - 8-19-2007 at 08:30 PM

Hey Wayne, what sat/xpndr. freq are you provisioned on?

losfrailes - 8-20-2007 at 06:53 AM

Alan

SatMex5, 117W/1230/V/H

Sig 68 but steady.

Russ - 8-20-2007 at 08:46 AM

If you have decided to use Hughes here are some of my experiences on set up & maintenance. I brought my system( a 6000) down in Feb. of 04. A neighbor and I got it up and almost working. But it needed some twicking we just couldn't figure out so called another neighbor with all the equipment and he fine tuned it and I was on. Well at least for awhile. When I started having problems none of my local help sources were around. I had heard about "Wayne on the Beach" and finally got in touch with him. He came out right away and rehabbed the whole system from from new connectors to a new satellite that day. Awhile later I move and thought I could move my system to the new place myself. Not. Wayne came out and moved the antenna and aligned it. I had no problems until just before Hurricane John came to play. Ended up taking my modem to Wayne and it checked out perfect except no service. He called on his tech line and they said I didn't pay the bill. Impossible! It's on auto pay. I called billing (in India) and the said the credit card was bad. I asked what number they were using and of course they couldn't/ wouldn't give me that info. So I gave them my numbers again and I was back up at Wayne's house. Hughes had changed some book keeping practices and messed up my card number.Got it home and still got an error message. Wayne asked if all my connection were clean and tight and I said they were. He came out and after a lot of head scratching he went around an changed out all my connectors and I haven't had a problem except normal signal degradation since. The point of this long and boring post is that if you go with Hughes drop it off with Wayne and he'll get it initialized at his place and then install it completely at your location. And patiently walk you through using it. He guarantees his work. Wayne's great! However, the help lines Hughes uses for customers suck! Their tech lines are American and fast but you have to have an installers ID #. :yawn:

nastalgia - 8-22-2007 at 09:42 AM

Doesn't really matter who's service you use. The trick is to set it up correctly on the best satellite for your area. I have three of the DS6000 units from e-bay set up on Satmex 5 in three different towns in Baja. All work well with 60 plus signal strength. Do have outages now and then but the sat is 22,000 miles out in space. The moments without service are minimal compared to the times with service. At 59.00 dollars per month for each service compared to 48.00 dollars per month for prodigy\telmex service it's a good deal. Even if you have a phone line and prodigy there are many times with no service at times for several days on end. For those of us not in an infinitum service area it's a great option.

toneart - 8-22-2007 at 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Russ
If you have decided to use Hughes here are some of my experiences on set up & maintenance. I brought my system( a 6000) down in Feb. of 04. A neighbor and I got it up and almost working. But it needed some twicking we just couldn't figure out so called another neighbor with all the equipment and he fine tuned it and I was on. Well at least for awhile. When I started having problems none of my local help sources were around. I had heard about "Wayne on the Beach" and finally got in touch with him. He came out right away and rehabbed the whole system from from new connectors to a new satellite that day. Awhile later I move and thought I could move my system to the new place myself. Not. Wayne came out and moved the antenna and aligned it. I had no problems until just before Hurricane John came to play. Ended up taking my modem to Wayne and it checked out perfect except no service. He called on his tech line and they said I didn't pay the bill. Impossible! It's on auto pay. I called billing (in India) and the said the credit card was bad. I asked what number they were using and of course they couldn't/ wouldn't give me that info. So I gave them my numbers again and I was back up at Wayne's house. Hughes had changed some book keeping practices and messed up my card number.Got it home and still got an error message. Wayne asked if all my connection were clean and tight and I said they were. He came out and after a lot of head scratching he went around an changed out all my connectors and I haven't had a problem except normal signal degradation since. The point of this long and boring post is that if you go with Hughes drop it off with Wayne and he'll get it initialized at his place and then install it completely at your location. And patiently walk you through using it. He guarantees his work. Wayne's great! However, the help lines Hughes uses for customers suck! Their tech lines are American and fast but you have to have an installers ID #. :yawn:

OK, Russ. I'll help you out with the boredom aspect (that you mentioned):

A little "twicking" from friendly neighbors doesn't hurt! :lol:

BCSTech - 8-28-2007 at 06:31 PM

Finding good, solid speeds lately on SM-5 for new accounts using HN7000s modems. Just set up a system today and getting a consistent 895 kbps down /187 kbps up on a max 1,000 kbps up / 200 kbps up account. Outside of the satellite latency issue, that's better than my TelMex DSL connect.

Bajagypsy - 8-28-2007 at 08:50 PM

just curious if any of you are using your sat system for VOIP?
And if so how well is it working for you?

BCSTech - 8-28-2007 at 09:14 PM

Quote:

You have any idea how far you are from your local exchange?

Probably about 2 miles. DSL providers in the US usually limit service to anywhere from 12,000 to 18,000 feet from the exchange. Don't know what it is down here but I suspect they really push the limit.

But you're only getting 100 kbps incoming? That still sounds pretty slow. Our DSL here is max rated at 512 down/128 up. Just ran a test and it's coming up higher that the rated max for down:

Quote:

just curious if any of you are using your sat system for VOIP?
And if so how well is it working for you?

Yes, I've used VOIP over sat, and some of my clients are using it. But you have to have one of the higher levels of HughesNet service to get it to play well. It works, but there will always be that delay.

BTW, Skype tends to work a little better than Vonage over satellite.

DianaT - 8-28-2007 at 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajagypsy
just curious if any of you are using your sat system for VOIP?
And if so how well is it working for you?

Gypsy,
Just for your information, Jose Luis at the Internet Cafe in town is working on setting up a wireless system system for the town---one we would pay for, but not expensive. I asked him if we would be able to receive it in our area, and he mentioned some technical things---repeaters, etc. and said yes.

What he is waiting for is for TelCel to give him DSL over the microwave system so it will be a lot faster than the dial-up---of course just when that will happen, well soon they keep telling him. He set up up a system like this for Punta Prieta. Now I understand absolute zero about all of this, but I hope it works soon. We don't even have land-line phone service available to us yet.

While in the Internet Cafe, I have seen a few people use their own computers and Skype---seemed to work OK. Or I should say I heard them---it is like the real old days when everyone shouted during long distance phone calls.

See you soon!
Diane

Bajagypsy - 8-28-2007 at 10:32 PM

thanks for the info!!!
it will be a few years till we need it (for now we've got the sat. phone but its not very reliable), maybe he will have it up and running by the time we finally move for good...see you soon :biggrin:

DianaT - 8-28-2007 at 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajagypsy
thanks for the info!!!
it will be a few years till we need it (for now we've got the sat. phone but its not very reliable), maybe he will have it up and running by the time we finally move for good...see you soon :biggrin:

Yikes, we hope it is running a lot sooner!

HAVE A SAFE TRIP--

Diane and John

fdt - 8-28-2007 at 11:13 PM

While on the subject of VOIP, how many of the nomads here have and use Skype, both Baja California and Baja California Sur. Simone finaly got our configurations going and we will now have a phone for call in's during the show and it will be thru skype so we can also do Skype to Skype :light:

and I'd love to have you to talk to.
saludos

losfrailes - 8-29-2007 at 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jdtrotter

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajagypsy
just curious if any of you are using your sat system for VOIP?
And if so how well is it working for you?

Gypsy,
Just for your information, Jose Luis at the Internet Cafe in town is working on setting up a wireless system system for the town---one we would pay for, but not expensive.

Diane, it has been my personal experience that TelMex will not bring DSL (Which requires hard wire connection) into the places serviced by their microwave systems.

At least that has been the case here in Ejido San Lucas, 16 KM south of Santa Rosalia and 40 KM north of Mulege, both of which are serviced with DSL and are on the main phone line. I waited for a couple of years of promises that they were going to bring DLS (INFINITUM) here. Finally they said not as long as there were insufficient customers to justify it.

Good luck with the Satellite Internet thing tho.

BigWooo - 8-29-2007 at 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajagypsy
just curious if any of you are using your sat system for VOIP?
And if so how well is it working for you?

I just set up Skype and used it for the first time last night. I made a call to the U.S. at about 9:00 pm BCS time. It was as clear as a normal phone call, and no delay whatsoever.

BCSTech - 8-29-2007 at 07:17 AM

Quote:

I just set up Skype and used it for the first time last night. I made a call to the U.S. at about 9:00 pm BCS time. It was as clear as a normal phone call, and no delay whatsoever.

You are on a satellite connection?

DianaT - 8-29-2007 at 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by losfrailes

Quote:

Originally posted by jdtrotter

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajagypsy
just curious if any of you are using your sat system for VOIP?
And if so how well is it working for you?

Another person in town told me that TelMex was taking a survey and they were putting together a petition. Also, I am not sure how he is doing it in Punta Prieta which is a really tiny fishing village.

Anyway, I hope you are wrong in your predictions, but fear you will be correct. Since it will be a long process to even get a phone land line, I don't know how long we will wait---may be calling you again-----

Thanks
Diane

bajalou - 8-29-2007 at 10:49 AM

In San Felipe, Telnor has a "Fixed Wireless" system which has both phone service and DSL (Prodigy Aire), no hardwired phone lines. Of course they have to have enough subscribers to justify the cost.

Had to edit spelling.

[Edited on 8-29-2007 by bajalou]

comitan - 8-29-2007 at 11:50 AM

Larry

Do you have DSL? Better yet can Comitan get DSL through your system?

[Edited on 8-29-2007 by comitan]

oldlady - 8-30-2007 at 04:19 AM

fdt,
I am on Prodigy in Chametla (great service here) and I use Skype a lot to call friends on the east coast of the U.S. Works very well.

I'll miss this when we move to Centenario.

Larry and Comitan,
As I understand it there are two issues with respect to expanding both voice and data services in Chametla and Centenario. One is that there are no poles and wires in the newly developed parts of Centenario. However, since people I know, living right next to telephone pole, can't get service because "Telmex is out of numbers", that leads me to believe that the switch and or switches is/are out of capacity. What is your information on this situation?

oldlady - 8-31-2007 at 04:08 AM

I would suspect Longlegs does, I have another friend in Centenario that definitely does, if you're in the puebla you get real good telecom if you can get a number. In the Lomas area there are all sorts of inventive kluges. There are even a couple of "Internet Cafes" using Infinitum, in homes of some of the enterprising Mexicans.

I have Infinitum here in beautiful downtown Chametla. The house we rent is really great, but the town does have a weird vibe, I agree.